Technical Field
This disclosure relates to offloading communications traffic from a base station, including, to one or more wireless local area network (WLAN) access points within a communications environment.
Related Art
Wireless communication devices, such as cellular telephones to provide an example, have become commonplace in both personal and commercial settings. The wireless communication devices provide users with access to all kinds of information. For example, a user can access the internet through an internet browser on the device, download miniature applications (e.g., “apps”) from a digital marketplace, send and receive emails, or make telephone calls using a voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Consequently, wireless communication devices provide users with significant mobility, while allowing them to remain “connected” to communication channels and information.
Wireless communication devices communicate with one or more other wireless communication devices or wireless access points to send and receive data. Typically, the wireless communication device will continuously detect and measure connection characteristics in order to make a determination as to whether it should remain connected to a current base station, or switch to a different base station. Also, when a determination has been made to offload, conventional wireless communication systems use unicast signaling to communicate offload triggers and configurations between a User Equipment (UE) and a network.
The disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.